Monthly Archives: June 2012

Well, well, well. It’s official: we will have a playoff in college football starting in 2014.

As a lot of college presidents are giving themselves pats on the backs and high fives, let’s take a look at the particulars.

There will be three contract bowls — the Champions Bowl, which is the partnership between the Big 12 and SEC, the Rose Bowl, which will still pit the Big Ten against the Pac 12, and a bowl to be determined for the ACC, which is likely will be the Orange Bowl.

The semifinals either will be played on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, and the national title game will be played on “Championship Monday,” the first Monday in January that is six or more days after the final semifinal game is played.

The first bullet point should tell you all one thing: the Big East is left out in the cold. Since there will be no more automatic bids going forward, and since it has no major bowl contract, the Big East won’t be part of the party. And while one should never say “never”, given the quality of play in the Big East we could pretty much say “never” to the Big East.

And you know what, I can’t really feel sorry for the Big East. Especially since the Big East has now turned itself into the “Big Continental” with the acquisitions of Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, UCF, Temple and Memphis. All this in a desperate attempt to stay at the adults table with the other major conferences.

The thing is, I don’t think it will make a difference. I think the Big East is on the survival clock. I think Boise State knows it too. Otherwise it would have already officially joined by now. It hasn’t even notified the Mountain West that it’s leaving yet – and the deadline to do so is June 30th.

I personally do not think Boise State will play a down in the Big East. Ditto for San Diego State.

I do feel sorry for Memphis, UCF, and Houston. Leaving Conference USA for the Big East is like a hot chick leaving a shoe salesman for another shoe salesman.

Title IX was born 40 years ago today. Thanks to Title IX, women in this country have countless opportunities to participate in the sport of their choosing. Let us remember this day and celebrate it another 40 years going forward!

Like this:

Former Penn State defensive coordinator/pervert Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of the 48 charges of child sex abuse yesterday. While the monster that is Sandusky was held accountable by the victims who testified against him, let’s make one thing clear.

There were losers all the way around.

I mean, sure the victims who took the stand against Sandusky were heroes. But I could not begin to imagine how they all felt with having to live with the shame of being sex abuse victims. Would any of you like to have taken the stand and recount the horrors of those encounters? Would any of you had felt so heroic in putting a sick, perverted bastard who ruined your innocence and lives behind bars?

I didn’t think so.

I have a very good friend of mine who is a victim of sexual abuse. When she told me that explained why she doesn’t feel worthy of love and her difficulty in maintaining healthy relationships with past boyfriends, words could not have expressed the sorrow I had (still have) for her. As she told me this via text, all I could do to help and support her was to do one thing that others should do for victims of sexual abuse.

Listen.

If any of those enablers errrrrr, scumbags errrrrrrrr, administrators at Penn State had listened to even ONE of those victims, just maybe Sandusky would not have been able to hurt other young boys.

Instead there is an astronomical amount of collateral damage. An assistant coach who probably will not coach again on ANY level. The administrators who will be out of jobs if not so already. The aforementioned victims who are forever damaged and will spend the rest of their lives in therapy.

And most of all, a deceased legendary coach whose legacy is forever tainted.

LeBron James came through HUGE for the Miami Heat last night in Game 5. It was easy to see why he was named MVP of the 2012 NBA Finals.

LeBron scored 26 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 13 assists in the 121-106 win over the overwhelmed Oklahoma City Thunder. Last night was truly a coronation moment for “The King”, and consider me a witness.

I am really proud of LeBron for putting the horror that was last year’s Finals where he became the “Frozen One” (courtesy of Skip Bayless) against the Dallas Mavericks. A lot of cats would have crawled up somewhere never to be found again. Not LeBron. It took him a little while to get going this season, but he nevertheless did his thing and practically carried the Heat to the NBA title.

While I think he will win at least two more titles, mainly because the competition is scarce outside of OKC. Should anyone in the East scare Miami, even Chicago with a healthy Derrick Rose? The West is a bit deeper, but Miami should not be intimidated, no matter the foe.

Congrats again to LeBron. He said it best after the game: it’s about damn time.

For years, I have been on record saying that the Bowl Championship Series was a necessary evil in college football. It was better at choosing a national champion than the dreaded poll-system that was place for several decades before the BCS.

Now that a playoff in college football is imminent, I guess I have to do a SLIGHT 180 and say that it may be such a bad thing after all – just as long as they get it right.

The talk is over a four-team playoff format that will go into effect in 2014. The only thing is how the four teams will be decided. Certain conferences (the SEC and Big 12) wants to have the top-four teams in the final regular season polls qualify. Others (the ACC, Big 10 and Pac-12) wants only conference champions – as long as they are in the top six (or eight). That would give flexibility for either a wild-card entry (a strong non-conference winner) or a champion from a lesser conference such as a Boise State.

I think too much money would be left on the table if they settled on just four teams. Hell, open it up to eight. That way there would be more conference champs, and more importantly, more strong wild-card entries. Better yet, the first round should be played at the home of the higher seeds. The subsequent rounds would be played at the bowls. The national championship would be played at the highest bidding city. Everyone would make money, making it a win-win all the way around.

While I think we will eventually see eight teams in the playoffs, four is not a bad start.

More importantly, the regular season has not been made any less relevant. If anything, it may make it that much more exciting. As long as it doesn’t over-expand its playoff field in the future, college football has stumbled upon a gold mine.

Like this:

Sigh, I know you all are as steroid-fatigued as much as I am, but I must get some things off my chest.

Former MLB pitcher Roger Clemens was found not guilty of lying to a grand jury over his alleged steroid use. Clemens boo-hooed his way through a press conference of sorts outside of the courthouse shortly after the trial ended with his attorney smiling his ass off.

Will this prevent Clemens from getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame? It shouldn’t, but it just might.

And while Clemens will not see any jail time, he is guilty of being a stupid-ass. First of all, the grand jury did not seek Clemens out the first time around – Clemens SOUGHT THEM! After his name came out in the now infamous “Mitchell Report”, no one called Clemens. All he had to do was lay low and cool the (puck) out.

But Clemens HAD to open his yap. He HAD to challenge the report in front of a grand jury and drag down MLB in the process. Hell, at least Barry Bonds didn’t want to be bothered.

Oh, and one more thing: doesn’t Congress have more pressing matters to attend to such as, oh I don’t know, a sorry housing market, national security, high unemployment rates.

Down 2-1 to the Miami Heat after losing a hard-fought Game 3 in Miami, OKC needs to bounce back and do so fast. This is when we see what the Oklahoma City Thunder is made of.

Look, a lot of people thought that the Thunder was robbed in Game 3. While the officiating was downright one-sided in Miami’s favor, the Thunder still had opportunities to win. They were out-rebounded (45-38) against the smaller Heat. They turned over the ball in crunch time, with Kevin Durant turning it over five times.

I do not think the Heat are winning this series as much as the Thunder are losing it. Sure LeBron James is balling and Dwyane Wade is coming out of hibernation, but let’s face it folks: if the Thunder did not blow it in the fourth quarter, they would be up 2-1 heading into tomorrow’s Game 4.

So here it is. Tomorrow’s game will determine whether the Thunder will wrestle back home-court advantage from the Heat and make my prediction come true or will lose this series in five. My hunch tells me that the Thunder will man-up and bounce back.